Good fight Vienna
Battling Scots produce momentous win that ticks all the boxes on road to Qatar
THIS feels like quite a moment in Steve Clarke’s Scotland story.
An away win, secured against the odds and by landing a potential knockout blow to a bigger nation from a loftier pot.
A team in dark blue punching above its weight at a critical moment.
Three points which now leave second seeds Austria in all manner of trouble in Group F, trailing Clarke’s men by four points after six games.
And a VAR decision going Scotland’s way just when it seemed Clarke’s luck had run out on him again.
Lyndon Dykes kept his nerve to rattle it home from the spot but even though it was the most slender of margins, this was a performance which merited all that it got.
It was also a rerun of a movie we lapped up not so long ago.
Clarke made three changes to his line-up. The first, Stephen O’Donnell replacing Nathan Patterson at right-back, was forced upon him.
But the others, Callum McGregor for Ryan Christie and Che Adams preferred to Kevin Nisbet, saw a flashback to that night against England in June, when so much clicked into place at such a critical moment.
Yes, Craig Gordon was in the
No.1 shirt as opposed to Davie Marshall and Jack Hendry was on the right of the back three instead of Scott McTominay.
But the rest of the team was identical.
Clarke’s logic seemed easy enough to follow. If it worked at Wembley then why not here, against an Austrian side wobbling back into action after a 5-2 thrashing in Israel at the weekend and also minus one or two of their key men?
It even started the same way too, with Kieran Tierney’s long ball from kick-off hung up in the air for Dykes to lay down a physical marker out on the right. And, with that, any suggestion of coincidence was removed completely.
Hell, it even opened up with a couple of early opportunities missed just to complete the set.
Billy Gilmour got it going when he ferreted around the ankles of Marko Arnautovic, forcing him to turn into trouble as he was robbed of possession by Adams.
The striker romped forward and slipped a pass into the path of John McGinn, whose progress was only halted on the edge of the box by a perfectly-timed sliding tackle.
In eight minutes, there was an even better one.
This time Adams picked the
pocket of David Alaba before sending McGinn off down the left. His cross floated towards Dykes, who rose to power a header and test the reflexes of keeper Daniel Bachmann.
Austria were frantic, the closest they came a shot from Arnautovic which was wide of Gordon’s left-hand post.
Scotland looked better organised, more composed.
Even with less of the ball, they looked capable of doing more with it. It wasn’t long before Austria’s players resorted to moaning at the match officials and demanding cheap fouls.
Dykes was given a ticking off for challenging Bachmann and then Adams was carded for no apparent reason after tangling with Florian Grillitsch. But it was the Austrians who committed the worst foul of the lot when Martin Hinteregger chopped into Callum McGregor’s shin-pads.
The Celtic man was lucky to get back to his feet. The big stopper was fortunate only to see yellow.
In 26 minutes, Hinteregger attempted to rugby tackle Adams inside his own box and although Scotland’s claims were initially waved away eventually VAR intervened to demand a second opinion.
Bulgarian ref Georgi Kabakov had no option but to point to the spot, though he declined to send Hinteregger packing.
Dykes drilled it low and hard through Bachmann’s grasp. Scotland survived some scary moments before half time, including an Austrian penalty claim when O’Donnell looked to wrap an arm around Christoph Baumgartner’s neck as they tussled for a high ball.
The second half began as Scotland expected, more crosses to defend, more red shirts piling forward.
But Clarke’s side is built to withstand precisely this sort of pressure. It did so comfortably.
Grant Hanley was booked for clashing with Hinteregger and will now miss Scotland’s next crunch showdown in Israel.
But that’s another problem for another day.
Arnautovic was lucky to escape punishment for a shoulder into Gilmour’s face as Austria’s discipline groaned.
Andy Robertson’s free-kick landed on the roof of the net when the skipper had spotted the erratic Bachmann drifting too far off his line.
The ex-Killie man did well to deny O’Donnell as he broke clear then Gordon brilliantly saved a Baumgartner header.
Baumgartner had an effort ruled out in injury time as he was miles offside, then Alaba curled a free-kick over the bar.
McGinn and Adams had come close to a second that would have let Clarke enjoy the closing moments.
But that would have no place in this roller-coaster narrative.